How do I connect a lamp wire to an actual circuit?

Question

I've got an old lamp that we want to use as an overhead light fixture, which has lamp wire coming out of it. Currently, that wire terminates in the outlet prongs, but I intend to cut those off.

The question is, how do I safely connect that lamp wire to the overhead light circuit? Just hot to one wire and neutral to another? Somehow this seems not right to me.

I know it can be done, as there are plenty of examples of light fixtures with lamp wire going to the actual lights. I just don't know if those fixtures are hiding some sort of regulator or converter behind the scenes.

Answer 1

That's all there really is to it - white to white and black to black. If they are not color coded then the black wire should be connected to the pin at the bottom of the light socket.

This assumes your light is line voltage (120V in North America). If it is not line voltage then there should be a transformer somewhere in the fixture already.